Tuesday, 17 May 2016

Joggling 2.0

CTV interviewed me and Michael Bergeron about our recent joggling shenanigans. Guess I should at least share the video on my own site. Michael, by the way, has done many races and at this point should count as seasoned athlete of this niche sport.

Context: Back in March I finally decided to deal with a nerve-related injury in my leg (weirdly parallel to Reid's situation, minus Olympic standards and all that). It's healing, very very slowly. Once I started running more in April, I needed something to focus myself other than sub 3 minute kilometers. Joggling had been in the back of my mind for years, so figured why not.

Long story short, I'm running joggling the Bluenose 5k this Saturday. Not sure how it will go in practice. All I can say for certain is a 17 minute 5k is more than doable without juggling balls (PB for roads is 15:08), but this adds a hell of a new twist. My joggling PB is 17:28, and the world record is 16:51. Last week I joggled a 5:10 mile on the track (no drops!), so it's certainly possible. Given this will only be my third joggling race, in any eventuality there ought to be room for improvement.

UPDATE (May 22, post race)
I completed the 5k Bluenose in a time of 17:42. That's about 45 seconds slower than I'd have liked, but it was a hot day; times were about a minute slower for everyone. Oh well. On the plus side, I did beat my 'rival' Micael-Lucien Bergeron. And since it was an 'out and back' style race course, past the turnaround we definitely provided entertainment for the jogging masses.

Me and Michael warming up before the start

Almost done. Dropped the #$% ball six times, compared with once for Michael. No points for style.
Well, maybe one point for style.